In early July 2003, I made my first trip to New Zealand in wintertime. I had work scheduled during the latter part of one week and the earlier part of the next in and around Invercargill, near the southern tip of the South Island, and a weekend in between. As I was planning my itinerary, I jumped at the chance to follow a strong recommendation by Squiddy and spend Saturday and Sunday on Stewart Island, some 35 km to the south of the southernmost point on the mainland, across the Foveaux Strait. I spent the night in the South Seas Hotel in the (only) town of Oban, on Half Moon Bay, and headed out early on Saturday morning for my first hike. I walked up the road that led to a track through a ravine named Fern Gully, but I hadn’t gone more than a quarter-mile before I was at a high enough altitude that, where the sun had not yet reached, the incredibly heavy dew that had fallen had fast-frozen in place, the like of which I have never seen before. Some of the frozen globules were nearly a third of an inch across!
krikitarts 
Very nice image….nice memories
Thanks, David, I’ve always loved photographing frost, but this one really took my breath away. I have several others that I made before moving on, and I think I may have to bring one or two of them out to play here as well in the near future!
Fabulous! You know I LOVE ice macros! This dew is spectacular!
So do I, Lemony, and when I saw this in the shadows beside the walking track, I literally started dancing around and squealing with joy. One of the high points in the whole trip!
Wow, what a spectacular capture!!! You outdid yourself on this one Gary! It’s so beautiful :)
Thank you so much! I’m getting such lovely comments that I think I’m going to have to do a Places Remembered post very soon, bringing out some of the other wonders that I came across on this day’s hike. It was one of my favorites of all my hikes–anywhere!
Looking forward to it!!
That is so beautiful! I have noticed from blogging that frost forms differently in other areas of the country, and world. Yours is one of the nicest frost shots I have seen.
I’ve noted the same thing. I may have to start a new series, something like Featuring Frost…
Very pretty!
That’s just what I thought, and I couldn’t believe my own eyes. And this was only the beginning of a very beautiful, productive, and memorable hike. What a way to start the day!
My heart skipped a beat! It’s as if my grandmother tatted a nice little skirt for the leaves, and the blades are graced with crystal worlds surrounded by crystal moons. I love this!
OK, that clinches it. I’m working tonight on bringing all of you more of my treasures from that wonderful day. I’ll try to start tomorrow.
Love the detail Gary!
Thanks, Jeff, I wish now that I’d shot it at the highest resolution–and saved my original, undeveloped images from that trip. I’m not at all displeased with how I developed it nine years ago, but I’d sure love to have a new go at it with what I’ve learned in the meantime! I think I’ll have to write up a new post on the essential importance of saving the originals.
How did you like the crossing? or did you go on one of the small planes? Love the image, it is a fantastic shot Gary!
I had really good luck on both crossings, on the launch. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, unless gales were predicted, of course. I can imagine that it can get pretty hairy at times!
That’s remarkable, it looks as though the dew has been flash frozen. It must have cooled really quickly indeed.
I can’t really readily recall seeing other photos of similar phenomena. I wonder how rare something like this might be. Have to do some research…
Excellent picture, Gary, very beautiful. How does it look horizontally flipped? Adrian
I couldn’t possibly do that. I’ve come to know this as one of my children, and it would look — well — just wrong, to me at least, like reversing a consistent part in a person’s hair or moving a loved-one’s beauty mark to the other cheek. But on a brand-new image, that’s much more possibly worth considering. It’s actually very fascinating how the entire mood and effect of an image can really change by generating a mirror-image. But not with an old friend like this, please!
Point taken! I know just what you mean. Adrian